Improvement in machines for pointing pickets



H. BALCONI.-`

Machines for Pointing Pickets.

10,136,807` P`atentedMarQh18J8-73.

UNITED STATES HIRAM BALGOM, OF ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAIBT, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED H. PARTRIDGE, OF SAME PLACE.

` IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR POINTING PICKETS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 136,807, dated March 18, 1873.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, HIEAM BALcoM, of Ann Arbor, in the county of Washtenaw and State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Improvement in a Device for Pointing'Pickets; and I do declare that the followingis a true and accurate description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawing and to the letters of reference marked thereon and being a part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a side elevation of the device in completing the point of a picket, and Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section.

Like letters refer to like parts in each figure.

The nature of this invention relates to a device for pointing the ends of fence-pickets of various Widths, andwhich is capable, by means of an adjustable or shifting fulcrum, to make Vt-he points on long or short bevels, or in the form of a parabola of greater or less height. The invention consists in a forked lever carrying an inclined knife in the jaws of the fork, which embrace a standard, to which they are pivo'ted in such a manner as to have an adjustment in the horizontal plane, while the radius of the lever may be length en ed or shortened, as required, for the purposes more fully hereinafter set forth.

In the drawing, A represents a bed-piece from which rises a short rectangular standard, B, in which is transversely cut a slot, a, in which slides a block, b, which may be raised or lowered in said slot by a set-screw, c. C is a lever having a forked end, the forks being formed by slotting the end, so that the fork may embrace the standard B. In the forks is secured, transversely, an inclined knife, D. Each jaw of the fork has aslot, d, formed in it, in which slot a block, e, slides,

being adjusted by a set-screw, f, at the end.

E is a guide-plate lying against the face of each outer part of the fork of the lever, and bent over their edges at top and bottom. Through these plates E E and the blocks b cA passes a fulcrum-pin, F, which thus pivots the block c to the block b.

In operation the lever is raised until the knife stands in a vertical plane, when the operator inserts, from above, the end 0f a picket between the knife and standard, resting it on the bed-piece, holding the picket with `one hand; with the vother he forces down the 1ever, causing the knife to shear oif a corner of the picket to the center of the end; reversing the edges of the picket a similar stroke of the knife cuts off the other corner and completes the point. Y

In pointing wide pickets the knife requires to be set further away from the fulcrum, so

that the sweep of the lever at the radius given will bring the point or edge of the knife to the center of the picket end, and vice versa with Vnarrow pickets. By raising the block b the parabola formed by the intersecting cuts of the knife will be shortened, and by raising it the parabola will be lengthened in height.

The leverage afforded enables the operator to cut the points with great ease and rapidity, and with uniformity in shape.

I am aware of the, patent of H. T. Bond, July 30,1861; and I do not claim any of the features covered thereby.

What 'I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The forked lever C, provided with the knife D and guide-platesEE,pivoted through the fulcrum-pinF to the standard B, as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The arrangement of the block b in the standard slot a and of the blocks e ein the lever-slots d d, the guide-plates E E and fulcrum-pin F, for giving the lever a compound adjustment to its fulcrum, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

^ HIRAM BALCOM.

-Witnesses H. F. EBERTS, H. S. SPRAGUE. 

